Pages

A group of Chicago education activists are hoping thousands of students take part in an August 28 boycott of a school system, they say, is acting as a destabilizing force in low-income
communities of color.

Next Wednesday, the Chicago
Board of Education is scheduled to vote on a proposed budget for the
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district, which has proposed some $68 million in school budget cuts. Next Wednesday is also the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech calling for equality for African Americans. The March on Washington was one of
the largest political rallies for human rights in U.S. history.

“Part
of our democracy is speaking up when you are being dealt an injustice,
part of our history in this country is being able to peacefully express
your frustration when policies do not treat you right,” said Jitu Brown, an education organizer for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO). “Young people will definitely get a lesson in representative democracy on this day.”

At
a press conference on Thursday outside of the mayor’s office,
Brown and approximately 50 education activists announced plans for the city-wide,
one-day school boycott. The group also plans to stay away from the
Chicago Board of Education meeting.

Sources

Last week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the population of food deserts in Chicago declined 21 percent over the past two years thanks to 15 new grocery stores, additional farmers markets and more produce carts. But those working on the ground to combat food-access issues in Chicago say the new numbers are not as sweet as they appear.

Jessicia Morris (pictured right) said if she hadn’t been able to go to Roseland
Community Hospital for medical treatment when she was shot in 2010, she
probably would have lost her leg — or worse.

“Doctors said I
made it to the hospital just in time,” said the 21 year–old former gang
member who was shot in the knee at the age of 17. “My knee-cap was
shattered and I lost a lot of blood. They said I was about to lose my
leg, or I wouldn’t have been able to walk again.”

Morris
was born and raised in Chicago’s often embattled Far South Side
neighborhood of Roseland, and said she joined the Black Disciples gang at the
age of 13.

“All we see out here is violence,” she said. “I didn’t know I could do anything else.”

Like thousands of other children in Chicago, Nidalis Burgos is
preparing to go back to school next week. But this year is different for Burgos:
the 15 year-old Lincoln Park High School student doesn’t know any of her teachers.

Budget cuts at the Chicago Public Schools
(CPS) led to the removal of teachers she’s grown to know, and now
Burgos said her class schedule is filled with unfamiliar names. In an
attempt to convince Mayor Rahm Emanuel
to declare a tax increment financing (TIF) surplus and restore the
budget funds, Burgos joined about 200 parents, students, teachers and
elected officials for a rally Sunday at Illinois Centennial Monument in
Logan Square.

With just 10 days left until students in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS)
district head back to class, a number of local school councils (LSC)
across the city have not yet approved their schools’ budget for next
year.

The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is allowing roughly 250
residents of the Judge Slater Senior Apartments and the Judge Slater
Annex to live in deplorable conditions with hostile management,
according to a group of residents who are calling for agency officials
to halt contracting with the building’s management company, the Woodlawn
Community Development Corporation (WCDC). Progress Illinois takes a closer look at the seniors' allegations.